World of Warships Supertest: German Tier VI Premium Cruiser Leipzig

Historical background

Leipzig was the lead ship of a class of light cruisers built by the Reichsmarine. The ship was laid down in April 1928, launched in October 1929, and commissioned in October 1931.

Leipzig’s first real “action” was during the Spanish Civil War as part of non-intervention patrols off Spain. When World War II started, the ship was assigned to escort duties for Kriegsmarine warships in the Baltic and North Seas. However, in December 1939, she was hit by a torpedo from HMS Salmon and nearly got hit by a second torpedo later on. Her sistership Nürnberg suffered the same fate. Both ships, while on their way home for repairs were targeted by a squadron of twenty British bombers but they were intercepted by a Luftwaffe fighter group and failed to further damage the sisters.

During repairs, the ship was reclassified as a training cruiser and had three of her boilers removed. She would resume duty in the later part of 1940 and spent the rest of the war on escort duty and providing fire support for the Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa. All was going well… until the 14th of October 1944. On that foggy day, Leipzig collided with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen which nearly cut the ship in half. The ship was judged to be beyond repair but with the Germans needing as much firepower as possible at this point of the war, she was still quickly patched up to keep her afloat in the harbor.

A reference to that event is actually present on board Prinz Eugen in the form of a funny Easter egg representing the damage Prinz Eugen suffered:

With the Germans getting pushed back by the Soviets, the ship provided fire support for the retreating troops in 1945 and was moved to Hela with refugees on board. She was then repeatedly attacked by Soviet aircraft and Allied submarines. By some kind of miracle, she went through all of this and was able to reach Denmark at the end of April. At the end of the war, Leipzig was used as a barracks ship and was later on towed away and scuttled in July 1946.

Ship’s preview

Ship’s commemorative flag

Ship’s camouflages

For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
Leipzig	Propulsion: 72 400 HP	‎FKS Typ 6 Mod. 1	150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Drh Tr C/25 mount	G7a T1

General Characteristics

Main Armament

3 x 3 150 mm/60 SK C/25 on a Drh Tr C/25 mount
Maximum Firing Range	13.500 km
Reloading Time	7.2 s
180 Degree Turn Time	30.0 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	30°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	40°
Sigma	2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	126 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 150 mm Spr.Gr. L/4.4 Kz.
Alpha Damage	1 700
Penetration capacity	38 mm
Explosion size	0.54
Fire chance	8 %
Projectile Speed	960 m/s
Air Drag	0.331
Projectile Mass	45.5 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 150 mm P.Spr.Gr. L/3.7
Alpha Damage	3 900
Projectile Speed	960 m/s
Air Drag	0.331
Projectile Mass	45.5 kg
Projectile Krupp	1 862
Projectile Detonator	0.025 s
Detonator threshold	25 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

Secondary Armament

3 x 2 88 mm/76 SK C/32 on a Dop. L. C/32 mount
Maximum Firing Range	5.600 km
Reloading Time	4.0 s
Sigma	1.0 sigma
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 88 mm Spr.Gr.
Alpha Damage	1 000
HE penetration	15 mm
Explosion Size	0.24
Chance to Cause Fire	4 %
Projectile Speed	950 m/s
Air Drag	0.307
Projectile Mass	9.0 kg

Torpedo Armament

4 x 3 533 mm Drilling G7a T1
Reloading Time	68 s
Maximum Distance	10.000 km
Optimal firing angles at the front	25°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	33°
Damage	13 700
Flooding Chance	227%
Speed	59 knots
Surface Detectability	1.3 km

Anti-air Armament

Consumables

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s	Hydroacoustic Search Number of charges: 3 Work time: 110 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo spotting range: 3.8 km Ship spotting range: 5.5 km	Defensive AA Fire Number of charges: 3 Work time: 40 s Cooldown: 80 s Continuous Damage: +50% Damage from shell explosions: +300%	Fighter Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Number of planes in a squadron: 2 Patrol radius: 3.0 km

The Armor

External armor protection:

Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:

Main belt:

Citadel armor protection:

Turrets armor protection:

Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:

Personal Opinion

As of right now, I have very little hope for this ship. On the one hand, she gets way better concealment than Nürnberg, going down to 8.7 km compared to almost 11.0 km. On the other hand, she gets a way worse firing range, worse main battery reload time, worse turret traverse, worse HP, worse anti-air, and that for what?
To try making her into some kind of torpedo-focused cruiser even though compared to Nürnberg’s classic torpedoes, all she gets is 10.0 km firing range compared to 6.0 km. The torpedoes themselves still deal low damage compared to most torpedoes at the same tier and it’s only six torpedoes per side.

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Yuzorah

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